Hello Internet,
I am a sophomore at Stony Brook university studying Business Management with a concentration in Finance. It's September right now and I want to start looking for an internship for the summer( yes I know it's a bit early but I want a head start). I have a few questions that I need answers to,
1) How much experience is required to land an internship at a bank? I have only one professional experience- i've interned at my dad's firm in Bangladesh over the summer but it didn't require much finance-related work, i mostly did scheduling and managed a small miscellaneous expense ledger-i have a few other volunteer work that i did over the years and two private tuitioning jobs.
2)Where should I start looking?
3) My GPA for the first two semesters were 2.9 and 3.2 respectively. I plan to get a 3.5 or higher this semester. How much will my low grades hurt my chances?
4)What are my chances of getting a paid internship? Assuming I do, what do they usually pay in finance related work?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! If you are someone who's been through a similar situation please to share your experience, and if you are a potential employer HIRE ME!
Oh and one last question, how much does a degree in finance pay at times like this?

I studied Finance in school and turned down a Street offer so I may be able to help out.

1) For an internship, none. A strong interview is what will land you an internship, not strong experiences, especially since 18 year olds don't have any real strong experiences. Your experience at your dad's place will be helpful in an interview, but likely won't help you actually land one.

2) Start emailing anyone and everyone who is an alum of Stony Brook and works for a bank. The key to getting a job on the Street is to get someone to have your back if you aren't at a target school.

3) A GPA under 3.5 is going to hurt a lot if you don't know someone. Every bank has GPA requirements by major (higher for business, lower for engineering/physics/etc) that they will gladly skirt if you impress them in an interview. Again, getting to that interview without an impressive GPA will require knowing someone.

4) If you landed an internship at one of the big banks, they'll pay you the pro-rated salary you would make as a first year analyst. This will work out to something like $12k a summer. Not so bad, huh?

Since you're starting so early, you've got a good shot at getting on someone's good side by the time you're a junior and really need an internship. The summer before senior year is the internship that really matters. If you land an internship then at a big bank, you'll be able to interview just about anywhere else, provided you don't totally blow it.

As I said before, start emailing anyone and everyone you can think of. Call everyone. Leave a million voicemails. Do not be discouraged by not receiving calls in return. Study a lot (and get better grades). Know everything about the 2008 recession. Expand your horizons whenever possible and don't focus solely on stocks. No one likes someone who can only talk shop.

Hey thanks a lot man, that's really good advice. And props to you for turning don a street job, not a lot of people can do that, me included. Will do everything you said for sure, and yeah working on getting my grades up. Thanks again!